Monthly Archives: January 2010

Please go here for a clear, calm, and rational counter to the claim that homosexuals are more likely than straight men to be child abusers.

This is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I lament the lack of thoughtful, reasoned counter argument to what most of us know are lies perpetuated by the closed-minded. Rob’s thoughtful, defensible, and researched response to hatred, prejudice, and bigotry is something that I’d like to see a lot more of – everywhere, of course, but in mainstream media in particular.

The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. (I lifted this from Kwizgiver). The novels I’ve read are in italics.

I’m always suspect about lists of this sort; I understand that they’re highly subjective. Were I to rewrite it, I’d want to include Frankenstein and, really? I enjoy Bill Bryson – quite a lot even – but I’m not sure Notes from a Small Island belongs on a list like this. Anyway, it is what it is; what have YOU read?

Success Warrior does this most every week – posting seven words on Sunday, that is (and he often includes the added bonus of a yummy hunk of man flesh to balance out all the chick pictures he posts all week long). I’m in a bit of a rush this morning, so I thought I’d play along this week (though without the boy cake; I just don’t have that kind of time).

REMEMBER to adamantly & vocally BOYCOTT this stamp, when you are
purchasing your stamps at the post office.

All you have to say is “No thank you, I do not want that Muslim Stamp
on my letters!”

To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS
who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Military Barracks in Saudi Arabia !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa !
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001 !
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM
attacks!

Pass this along to every Patriotic American that you know and get the
word out! Honor the United States of America !

I have a lot to say about this, but let me limit it to these few points. One, this is hate speech (“I do not want that Muslim Stamp on my letters!” sounds exactly like “I don’t want those fags living in my neighborhood,” or any number of other closed-minded, ignorant statements) and if it does anything – at least, for me – it inspires me to go out and buy these stamps (if they, in fact, even existed… we’ll get to that in a second). The response I sent to the person who forwarded this to me essentially said that I WOULD buy these stamps, and that it’s messages like this one that serve to perpetuate the hate and misunderstanding that gets us all into so much trouble.

Two, the stamp featured in the email doesn’t even exist, at least, not as something one can go in and buy (or object to) at the Post Office; it’s a custom design that someone created on the zazzle website (and yes, I checked ALL of the USPS offerings on their website. The only Eid stamp I could find was this one (and yes, I’ve bought this stamp):

￼￼

So, this is my way of forwarding this email: please, if this finds its way into your inbox, forward it out with the message that you DON’T condone its hateful rhetoric. If we don’t start treating each other with respect and dignity – if we don’t start fostering understanding and compassion instead of hate and oppression – we will surely hasten our collective doom.